I think this forum has mainly negative things to say about anything concerning AUC. Probably because it involves a younger population. Dr_Judge was supposed to be teaching there. So you might want to check with him.
My sister-in-law spent her last year of college at the AUC. She doesn't have good or bad things to say about it. But it is a school for the wealthy and elite of Cairo. Snobby is the rule and movies have been made about it. It is an extremely beautiful campus.
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Debbie: Compared to what? Downtown Cairo?
I wasn't comparing it to downtown Cairo. Well sort of, if I had the compacity to compare. Its green, lush, well kept and has buildings that don't look they have suffered the wrath of a few hundred years of habitation.
I don't think I have ever been near downtown Cairo. The Ramses Station to south of Shubra and by taxi up to Heliopolis. Every time I have gone near Cairo I have been sick and dragging me around just makes my in-laws feel guilty. And besides I was too woozy to absorb the surroundings. Don't worry junadelam, you won't be exposed to the things I was to make you sick. Partly my fault too much sun on the beach. You'll be in a nice comfortable neighborhood, no worry.
I have looked at the AUC website only and my sister in law did a her senior year there. To her is the most peaceful part of Cairo.
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by cairoexpat: Village girl I’m starting to wonder if you have ever been to Cairo.
I have made 5 separate trips there and my husband rented an apartment behind the Roxy cinema for 2 years. During my pregnancy he would tell me heathen stories of his escapades. Fetal memory hasn't worn off. My father-in-law works there and knows his way around too well. Yes its a long commute.
Cairo isn't the only city in Egypt. Its just the one with the most history.
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by sonomod: I have made 5 separate trips there and my husband rented an apartment behind the Roxy cinema for 2 years. During my pregnancy he would tell me heathen stories of his escapades. Fetal memory hasn't worn off. My father-in-law works there and knows his way around too well. Yes its a long commute.
Cairo isn't the only city in Egypt. Its just the one with the most history.
The question was "WHAT'S AUC LIKE?"
1. AUC is in downtown Cairo. If you've never been to downtown Cairo, then you have never been to AUC. SKIP THE POST AND DO NOT SUBMIT REPLY.
2. Junadelam can also look at the AUC web site. S/he also probably has a pretty brochure. It's not helpful to give her/him your opinion WHEN IT'S BASED FROM A WEB SITE AND NOT ON YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. So in summary, if it's not based on your personal experience, SKIP THE POST AND DO NOT SUBMIT REPLY.
3. Stick to the topic. Not your family history, unless your family founded the AUC and somehow is responsible for what "AUC is like" now.
To summarize, IF YOU DO NOT KNOW, R-E-A-D BUT D-O N-O-T R-E-P-L-Y.
quote:Originally posted by ExptinCAI: The question was "WHAT'S AUC LIKE?"
1. AUC is in downtown Cairo. If you've never been to downtown Cairo, then you have never been to AUC. SKIP THE POST AND DO NOT SUBMIT REPLY.
2. Junadelam can also look at the AUC web site. S/he also probably has a pretty brochure. It's not helpful to give her/him your opinion WHEN IT'S BASED FROM A WEB SITE AND NOT ON YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. So in summary, if it's not based on your personal experience, SKIP THE POST AND DO NOT SUBMIT REPLY.
3. Stick to the topic. Not your family history, unless your family founded the AUC and somehow is responsible for what "AUC is like" now.
To summarize, IF YOU DO NOT KNOW, R-E-A-D BUT D-O N-O-T R-E-P-L-Y.
We have Debbie,cairoexpat and ExptinCAI. The only one who replied to the main topic is Sonomod. The rest of you wackos had nothing to add.
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO ADD TO THE TOPIC , R-E-A-D BUT D-O N-O-T R-E-P-L-Y.
posted
How sweet, you had to invent another identity JUST to also post something irrelevant to the topic? Why on earth are you afraid just to use the nickname you usually post with..it's not as if we all know one another in real life, LOL.
Actually, I posted that to point to the original person she was reading opinions that were not founded on personal experience but a web site. Kinda relevant DON'T YA THINK!
quote:Originally posted by ExptinCAI: How sweet, you had to invent another identity JUST to also post something irrelevant to the topic? Why on earth are you afraid just to use the nickname you usually post with..it's not as if we all know one another in real life, LOL.
The nickname I usually post with! Which one is that? Is there a rule I don't know of? Do we all have to be a one nickname people. What about us, multi-nickname persons, how about some some tolerance and appreciation for those who are different.
After reading so many of her old posts inadvertantly I noticed that the archive website shows she got alot of help with moving to Cairo without the nasty she now displays to so many new posters.
How awful could living in Cairo be for her? She has been there almost 4 years, her contract should be up soon. Possibly this would be a good time to create a send off worthy of her angst?
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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I know its alot of work, but it would be worth it. But you already know that.
Here's two books that might help:
Author: Al-Omari, Jehad. Title: The Arab way : how to work more effectively with Arab cultures / Jehad Al-Omari. Publisher: Oxford : How To Books, 2003. Description: xxi, 202 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
Title: The New Relocating Spouse's Guide to Employment: Options and Strategies in the U.S. and Abroad Author: Bastress, Frances. Publication: Manassas Park, VA Impact Publications, 1993. Product ID: 24121 eBook ISBN: 0585164371 ISBN: 0942710576
Second book I have bookmarked on www.netlibrary.com if your university has an account then you can access the book for free. It handles alot of the setting up the home possiblities I would've never had thought about untill I actually get there.
Good luck.
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
My apologies for the broad question. I suppose what I really would like know is how serious the students are. I know that AUC has a superb faculty on Middle Eastern studies, but serious students make for a more serious intellectual culture. I don't want to be in a "state school" environment in which students are more interested in social networks than academics.
My question is general to elicit general responses that may help me make a decision about whether or not I should commit a year or more of my time to Cairo, or whether I would be better off pursuing research elsewhere while my spouse is in Cairo.
Posts: 8 | From: New York | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by junadelam: My apologies for the broad question. I suppose what I really would like know is how serious the students are. I know that AUC has a superb faculty on Middle Eastern studies, but serious students make for a more serious intellectual culture. I don't want to be in a "state school" environment in which students are more interested in social networks than academics.
My question is general to elicit general responses that may help me make a decision about whether or not I should commit a year or more of my time to Cairo, or whether I would be better off pursuing research elsewhere while my spouse is in Cairo.
Al Azhar is the top institution world wide for Islamic studies. Yet many of the instructors past or present at the AUC are graduates of Al Azhar.
My father-in-law graduated from Al Azhar with Phds in Arabic literature, Philosophy and Education. Top notch place and some of its classes are in English. Ephasis on "certian" classes.
Yet with all the 'serious' publications out there on Mid-East Studies many have come from AUC press. Edward Said studied at AUC and look at what he did with his career.
Yet undergrad students at AUC is a bloated 'socail culture' while post grad students are off limits to alot of the antics. I have heard stories from my sister-in-law of the snobbery of undergrad students.
As a Post-grad student and an American you wouldn't have deal with the elitist bullshit.
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by junadelam: My apologies for the broad question. I suppose what I really would like know is how serious the students are. I know that AUC has a superb faculty on Middle Eastern studies, but serious students make for a more serious intellectual culture. I don't want to be in a "state school" environment in which students are more interested in social networks than academics.
My question is general to elicit general responses that may help me make a decision about whether or not I should commit a year or more of my time to Cairo, or whether I would be better off pursuing research elsewhere while my spouse is in Cairo.
Depends on what kind of research you're speaking of. It's all a matter of your own perception. You may find AUC full of daughters and sons of elitist egyptians interested in latest spring line and their counterparts, the pretentious foreign students who think their bohemian attitude superior to noveau-riche snobbery of the locals... or you may find serious, passionate students who are truly interested in what they are studying.
Really, it's the same as any university in any other country. You will have your frats and drunken fests and you will have your earnest students, there to study.
Best to see for yourself and form your own opinions.
posted
well, i studied some courses at MA of Middle Eastern Histroy there back in 1997. Not all the prosessors there r good, some are and some aren't..besides most of them r biased against arab point of view.
[This message has been edited by tombsman (edited 15 April 2005).]
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